Wealth and the Dangers Thereof
Book of James • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewBeware that you do not become a lover of money and pleasure, but rather be a good steward with that which God has given you and those whom has place you over.
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Is there a problem with wealth? Is there a problem with having things?
While the answer to these questions for most is obvious. The answer is, No. We must also realize what is important. We must realize that while wealth and possessions are not bad in and of themselves, idolatry, pride, and egotism is. Not only is our heart toward wealth important, the means by which we acquired our wealth is important. This is what James addresses within our text.
Of all the passages in the New Testament, James’ warning to the wealthy stand out above all. For one to see a more direct condemnation of the wealthy, one would have to go back to the Old Testament prophets to find such warning and contempt for the wealthy. As one looks at our text, they will find wealth is not the issue. Possessions are not the issue. The heart of the individual with the wealth and how they acquired that wealth is.
Focus Passage: James 1:1-6
1 Come now, you rich people, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and your silver have corroded, and their corrosion will serve as a testimony against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! 4 Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of armies. 5 You have lived for pleasure on the earth and lived luxuriously; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and put to death the righteous person; he offers you no resistance.
Outline:
I was watching a comedian one night and he said that Hispanics, his nationality, had a way to discredit everything one has just said. It goes like…
How many of us know people who have a way to do that? That you know as soon as they say this or that or give you a certain look, all that you said makes no difference? They are like, come on now, really.
James is not different within our text. James has a way of addressing his readers/hearers in such a way that they can’t help be put in this perspective. He begins this portion of his letter with that same communication tool, Come now. He is stating, really? Do you not see what’s going on? Have you truly lost all common sense about your situation?
After begging the question, really? do you not see the truth before you? have you lost all common sense? He addresses the target audience.
Who do you believe is the target audience from our text?
We know that our target audience are the rich folk. He writes, you rich people. This is not the first time that James has addressed the wealthy within his letter. He has addressed them two other times.
He addresses the rich in 1:10, where James causes the rich to realize that they needed humility for they will not always live
10 but the rich person is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away.
In James 2, he warns not to show partiality to the rich for they are the ones that sew their brethren and blaspheme the name of God.
1 My brothers and sisters, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.
6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? 7 Do they not blaspheme the good name by which you have been called?
In James 4, James warns not to lust after the things of this world and desire its riches. It is due to our own personal lusts, that wars come among us internally and externally.
1 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is the source not your pleasures that wage war in your body’s parts?
Who would say that James’ view of the wealthy is a positive view?
Who would say that James’ view of the wealthy is a negative view?
Is there anything wrong with being wealthy in and of it self?
Wealth in and of itself is not bad. The love of wealth and the pride of wealth is.
The love of money is the root of all evil
10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
10 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
No matter how you translate 1 Ti 6:10, you see that the love of money is the problem, not money itself. Paul, writing to Timothy, states that the love of money has caused some to long for, stretch forth out toward, and the result was two-fold: they wondered from the faith and penetrated themselves entirely (physically/spiritually/emotionally/mentally) with sorrows. That which they thought would cause them happiness in the end caused the exact opposite. A great example of this
Hebrews & James (I. Introduction: Some Sources of Spiritual Numbness)
After the Revolutionary War many leading preachers from the original colonies migrated to Kentucky, where they pursued wealth and sometimes left active involvement in ministry. One of these was Elijah Craig, who moved to Kentucky from Virginia in 1787. He purchased one thousand acres of land, engaged in continuous land speculation, established the first saw and grist mill in Kentucky, and built a paper mill. An observer wrote about him that these business activities “impaired his ministerial usefulness.”
Another preacher who left Virginia for Kentucky was John Taylor. He, too, became sidetracked from spiritual matters after his move. He wrote in his personal journal of the hard manual labor needed to make a successful living in Kentucky: “We had no time to pause and think, but go right on to work.” After two years he was able to boast, “I was the richest man in the county where I lived.” However, he had to admit that “through the course of this two years, I preached but little.”
Both of these men had endured hardship, persecution, and had been relatively poor in Virginia. Building up wealth had not been their previous goal. In fact, one zealous minister in Virginia, Samuel Harris, had refused to take a man to court for money owed to him, money which he desperately needed. Harris’s explanation was that he “didn’t want to lose time in a lawsuit he could spend preaching saving souls.”
For some church leaders the new opportunity to seek material goals served as an anesthetic on the spiritual life.Some zealous ministers showed a preference for political power rather than for spiritual power. James Garrard, a preacher who had moved to Kentucky, left his preaching in 1796 to become governor of the state. Historian Robert Semple sorrowfully wrote, “For the honours of men he resigned the office of God. He relinquished the clerical robe for the more splendid mantle of human power.” Semple also spoke of another talented minister from the Roanoke Association in Virginia who, “misled by ambition,” set himself up as a candidate for Congress. These words do not suggest that involvement in politics signifies automatic spiritual declension. Semple’s words suggest that in the above instances a love for political power had replaced a pursuit for spiritual power.
A quest for wealth and power can consume all our energies. Those who have wealth and power face the additional temptations of pride, greed, and an attitude of self-sufficiency. The wealthy can also take advantage of their condition to practice injustice and dishonesty toward the poor and needy.James saw wealthy people who were facing these temptations and yielding to them. He warned both the rich and poor—the majority of his Christian readers—of the numbing effects of wealth and the pursuit of power.
James addresses the issue of a love for money and dishonest gain in away that is only seen from the prophets of old from the Old Testament days. May we, as Christians today, heed the warnings put forth by James. Let us hear and let us be warned.
Self-sufficiency, Pride, and a Love for Money will Bring Judgment (vv.1-3)
1 Come now, you rich people, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and your silver have corroded, and their corrosion will serve as a testimony against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure!
James called his reader to biblically repent over their lust for money, pride, and self-sufficiency - ‘…weep and howl...’
James assures of judgment to come, because of their lust for money - ‘…which are coming upon you...’
James, in the Greek, writes in the present tense of judgment, which are coming, marking the guarantee of judgment.
They had a false hope and security based off of their wealth and possessions.
How many of us have seen those with false securities of wealth and possessions?
How many of us have seen those who have faced sudden judgment/loss of wealth and possessions?
Great examples of this from our past and not distant past at that: The Great Depression, the Stock Market crash of 2000 and the Housing Market crash of 2008, and now the horrendous inflation that we have today with the potential of another housing market crash predicted if we default on our debt.
I remember working at First Arkansas Bank and Trust and how many of those workers were poised to retire, but were forced to continue to work due to the Market crash of 2000. They lost most, if not all, of their retirement and 401k. It was horrible. All that they had worked for their entire lives was gone.
This is great picture of what we are seeing within our text. All that they were depending on, was now gone.
Wealth is not something to place our hopes and future on.
James identifies the condition of their life spiritually through physical means
He identifies that their life will be in ruins - ‘…your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten...’
He identifies that their life will be corroded and poisoned - ‘…your gold and your silver have corroded...’
James not only addresses their need for repentance and explains a judgment to come as if it had already taken place, identifies further that their fall will be a testimony of the condition of their poverty, their corrosion will serve as a testimony against you.
James states that their love for money and the riches of this world will consume and destroy them, will consume your flesh like fire.
Is this not the what seeking wealth does to us? How many of us have seen misery in others, because they sought physical wealth rather than spiritual wealth?
How many of us have seen what wealth does to us and how it consumes us, if we seek after it rather than spiritual vitality and wealth?
May we remember the words that John was instructed to write to church at Smyrna, I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich)…(Revelation 2:9 KJV).
May we remember the promise of Jesus, our Lord and Savior...
33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you.
May we remember the warning of Jesus, our Lord and Savior...
24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
James warns his reader/hearer that time has run out - ‘…It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure...’
Jesus gave the same warning. May we heed the warning given by Jesus and the reminder given by James...
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;
The Motive and Means (vv.4-6)
4 Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of armies. 5 You have lived for pleasure on the earth and lived luxuriously; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and put to death the righteous person; he offers you no resistance.
Once again, wealth is not in question. Money is not intrinsically wrong or evil. It is the love of money that is evil. As Jesus told us, where your treasurers are, is where your heart is. If we are focused on wealth and worldly possessions, we are not going to be focused on kingdom work and growth. James brings this out within this portion of our text, as he writes the motives behind the wealthy that he is addressing.
He states that their motives and means were immoral and dishonest.
Let us not gain wealth by withholding that which is rightfully owed - ‘…the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you...’
How many of us have heard stories of people withholding pay from others?
What happened during those times? How did the those not receiving pay survive?
Mom working at the sowing factory in Beebe for five weeks without pay and the harm it caused our family
Wealth is often destructive to the soul and causes false assurances of salvation - ‘…you have lived for pleasure on the earth and lived luxuriously; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter...’
Wealth often causes the innocent to fall victim - ‘…you have condemned and put to death the righteous person...’
God hears the cry of those abused and will not resist judgment - ‘…and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of armies…he offers you no resistance...’
Conclusion
Is having wealth wrong?
Is having possessions wrong?
What is wrong then?
When our priorities for wealth, possessions, pride, and self-sufficiency overtake our drive for kingdom work, service, and faithfulness to our Lord, it then becomes wrong.
Let us remember that where our treasures are is where our heart is. Where is your heart? Does your focus need to change? Do you need to become concerned with money and things and become more concerned with God?
Do we need to check our motives and means?
The best way to check our motives and means is through the word of God.